The present invention relates to a method for preparing a puff snack from beans such as pea (Pisum sativum) and broad bean (Vicia faba) as main starting ingredients and in which the beans are puffed in an extruder.
There have been conventionally known some methods for preparing snack confectioneries which comprise the step of puffing beans as starting ingredients such as pea and broad bean with an extruder, for instance, those disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent (hereinafter referred to as "J. P. KOKAI") No. Sho 61-58539 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,037. The method as disclosed in this patent comprises the step of subjecting beans to extrusion-cooking by passing them through a twin-screw extruder with or without addition of water for controlling the moisture thereof. More specifically, the extrusion cooking is practiced by supplying beans to a feed opening of the extruder while supplying water to the feed opening through a metering pump to control the water content of the beans to a high level in the order of 30 to 40% and then extruding the beans.
The puff snacks prepared by this method have very light and crisp taste. Therefore, they are favorable as confectioneries, but if they are used as snack food or bar food, they are too soft and lack in the taste peculiar to the starting bean.
J. P. KOKAI No. Sho 61-9253 also discloses a method for preparing a snack food which comprises puffing a bean such as pea or broad bean as an ingredient in an extruder. More specifically, this method comprises the steps of puffing a starch ingredient such as wheat flour or wheat starch in a twin-screw extruder, then pulverizing the resulting puffed product, mixing a bean such as pea or broad bean with the pulverized product in an amount ranging from 5 to 50% on the basis of the total amount of the ingredients and again puffing the mixture in a twin-screw extruder.
However, this method suffers from a problem, in addition to the foregoing ones, in that the resulting puffed snack lacks in the taste peculiar to the bean and the color tone thereof. Moreover, the puffing with an extruder must be performed twice and this makes the process complicated and increases the running cost.
Further, J. P. KOKAI No. Sho 59-51746 discloses another method for preparing a snack food which comprises puffing a bean such as pea or broad bean as a starting ingredient in an extruder. According to this patent, it is proved that if only beans are used as starting ingredients, the resulting puffed products do not have porous texture and are hence difficult to eat. The patent further discloses that these problems can be eliminated through the use of a mixture comprising 75 to 25 parts by weight of a bean and 25 to 75 parts by weight of a specific starch ingredient such as tapioca starch as a starting ingredient.
However, the puffed snacks obtained by this method do not have the taste peculiar to the bean used and are insufficient in the color tone of the bean and hardness.